We dine out a lot. Often it’s for our job, but mostly it’s because we love food and are usually too lazy to cook on weekdays. We’re constantly running into things that amuse, irritate, delight and puzzle us about the local restaurant scene. Here is our first installment of Food and Whine, an occasional feature celebrating and sorting out those little things that make dining out the rich experience it is.
— Monica Eng
Tips on tips: We have long wondered about the tipping protocol at dim sum restaurants, brunches and those all-you-can-eat buffets. Now there’s a new tipping conundrum: cafeterias like the one at the Michigan Avenue Nordstrom’s (OK, near the Tribune) where customers stand in line, pick up most of their food and pay before going to their seats. The catch is that once seated, you are greeted by these super helpful bussers who get you water, bring you food items that aren’t immediately ready and take away your trays.
So are people tipping these guys?
“Yes,” says Desiree Futrell, former assistant manager at the Michigan Avenue Nordstrom’s Cafe and current manager at the Skokie Nordstrom’s Cafe. “I’d say about 75 percent of the people leave a tip on the table of $2 to $5. A lot of people don’t know if they should leave a tip because they are getting a lot of stuff themselves, but the staff will list the desserts [menu], clear tables and refill beverages, and so they do make up for you getting your own food.”
OK, now we have no excuse to keep stiffing the waitstaff.
Post theater non-dining: When Petterino’s opened last year in the new Goodman Theatre building, it looked like a boon for the post-theater dining crowd. But a reader recently found it to be more of a bust. Although he called and confirmed that the last dinner seating was at 10:25 p.m. and that he wouldn’t need a reservation at that time, he was refused dinner service (though dessert was available) when he arrived at 10:15 p.m. He was told that the last dinner seating was actually at 9:45 p.m. The hungry diner found repast nearby at Smith & Wollensky downstairs grill.
We called and were told that 9:45 p.m. was the last seating, until the hostess corrected herself, “Oh, wait a minute,” she said. “I just checked the sheet and our last weekday dinner seating it is actually 10:25 p.m.”
So, Petterino’s, which is it?
Decipher that menu item: While dining at Rogers Park’s Tickies Belizan Cuisine, we spotted this intriguing item (an $8 weekend special): Cow Foot Soup: Cow Foot & Stripe Boiled Until Tender With Vegetable & Ground Food.
Here’s what it actually is: A long-cooked gelatinous cow hoof stew with beef tripe (not stripe), vegetables and several diced Caribbean tubers (yucca, yautia, etc.) that are affectionately known in Belize as “ground food.”
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We want to hear about your dining experiences — both good and bad. Write to Food & Whine, Friday Section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611, or e-mail us at [email protected]